


Dear to Me

by conniptionns



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-08
Updated: 2017-06-08
Packaged: 2018-11-10 18:11:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11132103
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/conniptionns/pseuds/conniptionns
Summary: prompt: Andrew going to grab Neil for some reason (not to hurt him or anything) and Neil flinches away involuntary. Cue the "are you scared of me Neil?" conversation.. happy ending pls





	Dear to Me

It was a small thing, so small that if he hadn’t been paying very close attention, Andrew never would have noticed.

They were in the kitchen, finally together after months apart. Neil being on a different team made it hard for them to make time to just be together. They had plenty of dates, where one of them drove to meet up for dinner or a movie or a smoke and a night together in a hotel, but they rarely had downtime where they both just existed in the same space and went about their days.

It was like being alone, together. Andrew went about his day and Neil went about his. Sometimes their activities overlapped. Neil came to make a sandwich while Andrew sat at the kitchen table eating a quart of chocolate rocky road ice cream. Andrew came into the bathroom to take out his contacts that were bothering him, while Neil was using the restroom. Andrew draped himself on the couch to nap while Neil was watching an exy game; one that he put on mute with subtitles when Andrew sat on the couch.

When Andrew went to grab Neil’s arm to put it around his shoulder, Neil flinched and had Andrew not opened his eyes from his sleepy blink in time, he never would have seen it. Andrew dropped his hand like he had touched a hot surface, and slid across the couch, putting as much room between himself and Neil as possible. That wasn’t normal. It was normal for Andrew to be the one who needed kid glove treatment, but just because it wasn’t normal, didn’t mean Andrew was going to ignore it.

“Neil, are you afraid of me?”

“No,” was the immediate reply.

“Don’t lie to me,” Andrew warned.

“I’m not lying. It’s just not that easy,” Neil corrected.

Andrew turned so that he was facing Neil directly on the couch, and Neil turned off the exy game but still didn’t make eye contact with Andrew.

“Something happened,” Andrew guessed.

“No. Well, kind of, but it has absolutely nothing to do with you.”

“Tell me. You can trust me.”

Neil was worrying a loose string at the bottom of his shirt.

“It was in the locker room, and it’s already healing.” Neil was quick to reassure.

“Can I see?”

Neil took off his shirt and the entire right side of his torso and some of his arm were covered in dark purple, almost black, bruising. Andrew was immediately on his feet, swearing and pacing. insisting that Neil tell him who did this to him, but Neil just sat on the couch and held out his hand to Andrew. Eventually, Andrew took the proffered hand and Andrew sat down next to Neil, careful not to jostle his side to hard. Neil pulled Andrew down to rest his head on Neil’s shoulder. Andrew let himself be manipulated into the position Neil wanted, but still held all of his weight off of Neil.

“It was a fan of the opposing team. I don’t know how he got into the locker room. The team lawyer is recommending that I sue the opposing team, since it was due to a lack of security in their court where I was injured. Not only that, but the man who did this is currently in jail for assault and terroristic threats.” Neil was smoothing Andrew’s hair down, and Andrew was frustrated that Neil thought that he had to reassure Andrew when he was the one that was so clearly injured.

“I’ll kill him.”

“You will do no such thing. I’ve taken all the correct steps with the help of the lawyers, and I can take paid medical leave for up to a month. I told the coaches and owners that I would be discussing it with my _husband_.” On the word husband, Neil jostled Andrew gently, showing in his own way his happiness over their impending nuptials that coming weekend.

“Neil, the reason I even said yes was because I thought you trusted me with everything. Are you sure this is something you want, if you’re going to hide things from me like this?”

“My intention wasn’t to hide this from you, but I also haven’t seen you in so long and I really just wanted a few hours of normalcy before I had to tell you. Also, I wanted to see if I could talk your coach into letting you get some time off before I–” Andrew cut him off.

“Did you not watch my last game? My team didn’t make the playoffs. Last Thursday was my last game until summer training starts up for next season.”

Neil grinned devilishly. “Does this mean that we can take a month long honeymoon?”

“In what world is an exy junkie like you going to _not_ go to playoffs with his team?” Andrew was almost smiling, so Neil was counting it a win.

“A junkie that was so  _brutally_ battered–”

“Neil, you just have some bruising and–”

“Can you imagine the psychological trauma of being shoved up against a wall in the locker room and being forced to throw a man twice your size across the room and then be held back by your teammates when you went to punch his face in? Neil asked.

“You did not.”

“Oh, I very much _did_.” Neil leaned forward to kiss Andrew and rub their noses together.

“I’m not saying I love you, but–”

“But, same,” Neil said with a bright grin.

Sometimes noticing the small things led to worry and pain, but sometimes noticing small things, like the twinkle in your soon-to-be-husband’s eyes made the quick visual processing worth it. And Andrew did love Neil.

**Author's Note:**

> find me on tumblr @exychamp


End file.
